knight in armor

Avalon Pilot part III-3: Ararat

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

It took all day to climb and scramble down the mountain, and cross the hills that quickly petered out as they approached the plains.  In the first valley, Alexis found a section overgrown with vines.  She picked grapes, and everyone had some and enjoyed them, even though they had seeds.  The humans were no longer accustomed to eating grapes with seeds.

“The Kairos said the food here would nourish only we might not find everything we need.”  Lincoln made a note in his book.

Boston spoke up.  “I have the daily vitamins.  We need to start taking them in the morning.”  She looked.  She had three bottles in her medical pack.  One was marked human, one marked elf, and one marked especially for Doctor Procter.  She wondered what made them all different.  “Hey, wait a minute.”  Boston took the medical kit out of the top of her pack.  It came in its own carry pack, like a purse that could be worn over a shoulder.  She handed it to Alexis.  “You have to be better at this than I am.”

Alexis took it, and by what she called a simple bit of magic, she made the strap longer so she could slip her head and one arm through and carry it on her hip.  “I was thinking of asking for this, but I thought maybe you wanted it.”

“No, ma’am,” Boston said.  She felt used to thinking of Alexis as a much older woman and decided it might take some time to make friends.  “I cry too much and I don’t like to see people bleed.”

“I thought so.  Emotional, like a little one.”

“Really?”

“Flighty as a fairy, they say.”

Boston frowned.  She did not imagine that was a compliment, but she did not say anything for the sake of a possible future friendship.

“I hope you keep a good eye on your father,” Lockhart told Roland as they walked.  He looked at the elf and tried hard not to show anything on his face before he turned his eyes again to the trail.  “To be honest, I was not made for elves and fairies and such, though I have known a few in my time.  Still, and I mean no offense, but I find being so close to elves…” he paused, and thought, a bit creepy?  “Let’s just say it is going to take me some time to get used to it.”

Roland did not get offended.  In fact, he answered in innocent honesty.  “I know exactly what you mean.  I have spent time on earth, but working and observing.  I am not used to being around mortals, er, humans like this.  I think what makes it hard for me is the fact that we are more similar than most people think.”

“Similar?”  Lockhart could see very little in the way of similarities.  Creepy was not a bad word.

“We both fall in love, and elves and humans can even have babies together.”

Lockhart could not keep his lip from curling up ever so slightly at the idea of making love to an elf.  He looked back at Alexis and Boston, and gave Roland the point.  Not every human had his problem.

“Do not worry, Lockhart.  I will keep father ever in sight.”  Lockhart merely nodded.

“Aha!”  Doctor Procter shouted from the front of the line.  Lincoln walked beside the doctor and Mingus came right behind.  In fact, Mingus nearly bumped into the two when the doctor came to a sudden halt.  “It’s working.”  The doctor held up the amulet.

“Let me see.”  Lincoln wanted a look, and Boston ran right between Lockhart and Roland.

“That girl has too much energy,” Lockhart said, softly.

“Yes, she does,” Roland agreed, but it was impossible to tell what he thought about that matter.

“You see?”  The Doctor explained.  “It is linked to the castle all the way in the future.  It picks up the vibrations of the time gates and points the way we need to go, like a compass.  That will take us to the next gate.  It gives an approximate distance to travel, here, about twenty miles; and it should give off a dim green light when we get near the gate.  I don’t know if that part works yet.”

“But that is wonderful,” Lincoln shouted.  “However does it work?”

Doctor Procter looked up at the man, while Mingus said the expected, “Magic.”

“You lie like and elf.”

Mingus and Roland spun around to see who insulted them, but Alexis said it, and grinned.  Mingus stared at her for a second before he conceded the point.  “I never could lie to your mother, either.”  Roland wisely said nothing.

“Let’s have it.”  Alexis reached out and the Doctor handed over the amulet as Lieutenant Harper came up to have a look.  Alexis twirled it twice in her hands before she handed it to Lockhart.  Lockhart immediately handed it to Boston, and Boston spoke up.

“The latch.”  She opened it and stared at the sophisticated electronics inside for a few seconds before she made her pronouncement.  “It is a homing device.  On earth, I would call it a geo-positioning device, but here, I suspect it works in some strange way because of the space and time distortions we are traveling through.”  She closed the amulet and looked up.  “So how close was I?”

“Judging from the looks, I would say you nailed it,” Lieutenant Harper said.  “And that was very good.”

“She is a natural born geek,” Lockhart added, before Roland burst out with his thought.

“Why, that was brilliant.”  Boston turned a little red, as was her way, and pointed up the hill.  She handed the amulet back to Doctor Procter and walked out front until her feelings of embarrassment subsided.

From there, it did not take long to get to the top of the last hill before the plains.  When they arrived, about an hour before sunset, they were astounded at what they saw.  There had to be a hundred thousand campfires and a million people packed into a treeless, grassless valley that butted up to a hill at least two or three miles away.  On top of that distant hill, there sat an Empire State Building high tower.  Captain Decker got out his binoculars.

“It can’t be.”  This time, Lincoln said it first.

“Shinar,” Doctor Procter announced.

“We went under a glamour here,” Mingus said.

“I remember,” Alexis spoke up, and this time she took a moment to explain what a glamour was.  “That means we made an illusion so we would look like the normal people and not stand out in the crowd.”  Alexis shook her head.  “But it is not easy to do, and it works best when applied to oneself.”

“That is something Roland and Mingus may have to consider in the future.”  Lockhart looked at the sky.  “For now it is nearly dark and I think we should camp on this side of the hill, out of sight.”

“It is hot enough,” Captain Decker agreed.  “I suggest we skip the fire to not draw attention to ourselves.”

Lieutenant Harper had her own binoculars out and she responded only to Doctor Procter’s statement.  “Shinar.  The Tower of Babel,” she said.  Then she paused.   She caught the glint of sunlight off something shiny on that distant hill.  When she squinted, it looked to her like a man on horseback.  It looked like a knight in armor.  She blinked and it vanished.  She shook her head.  She felt sure horses were not domesticated yet, and surely these were not a metal working people to produce such armor.  She decided it must have been an illusion, or her imagination, and put it out of her mind.

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MONDAY

On the plains of Shinar they find the tower, and Nimrod, and trouble. Until Monday, Happy Reading.

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Golden Door Chapter 20 Beth Above It All, part 1 of 2

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“Be careful where you set your feet,” Mrs. Aster said, as she got big and came to stand beside Beth. The others followed her example and Beth got to see the fairy men in their big form for the first time. They were all very handsome. Pinoak seemed skinnier. Cherry looked shorter and had a ruddy red complexion that seemed natural to his cheeks. Dogwood looked chiseled, with dark hair and eyes to match. He kept the serious expression on his face when Mistletoe came up to him and took his arm. Hyacinth looked shyly at her feet. Daffodil stifled a little, nervous laugh. Zinnia and Holy remained small, in Beth’s hair, and Holly said “Bleah!”

“Never you mind,” Mistletoe said.

“Enough of that,” Mrs. Aster said at the same time. “We need to get out of this rain.” She started to walk toward the trees that lined the stream that flowed out from the castle. Beth followed but slipped on her first step. She caught herself, but Zinnia fell off her shoulder and Holly only held on by yanking on Beth’s hair. “Careful,” Mrs. Aster continued. “The grass is slippery.”

Beth became extra careful after that, especially since they had to climb a hill to get to the castle gate. She noticed both Cherry and Hyacinth did not fare much better as they each took a step and slid back down a bit, arms out to hold their balance.

“Everyone, hold still!” Mrs. Aster cocked her head to listen for something. Eyes scanned the rainy sky, but it seemed hard to see anything clearly through that torrent. Dogwood finally identified the enemy when they were nearly on top of them.

“Harpies,” he hollered, and hands went up to fend off the beasts while everyone ducked.

All three men pulled swords which Beth hardly noticed they had. Mrs. Aster pulled a long knife from somewhere along with her wand. Daffodil and Hyacinth shrieked and Zinnia and Holy screamed in Beth’s ears, which Beth felt sure would make her deaf. Then she saw five harpies, just overhead.

They were naked women, about four feet tall, held aloft by great bat-like wings. They were a green scaly color, had little horns that poked out of their short reddish hair and sharp teeth that were barred to let out their screaming cry, like a bird of prey. They had arms and legs that ended in claws with thumbs on both their hands and feet. Beth did not see their eyes close enough to judge their intelligence, but she did see the malevolence.

 Three of the harpies attacked the three men with swords, knowing they were the greatest threat. One followed Mistletoe who scurried over to Mrs. Aster. The harpy pulled up on sight of the knife. The fifth went after Beth where Zinnia and Holly squirted out from her hair in search of help. They zoomed to Daffodil and Hyacinth who were no help at all. Beth got left to fend for herself, but she could only throw her hands up to try and keep the harpy claws out of her hair.

The harpy paused as Beth’s hands began to sparkle with blue sparks. Beth knew instinctively that it was something in the air, and not the rain. Beth felt something in the pit of her stomach that wanted to escape. It felt like the little left over she was promised by Lord Nimbus. The harpy turned away, but not fast enough. The blue sparkles congealed, and a stroke of lightning sprang from her fingertips. The harpy lit up the storm, cried out against the thunder and fell to the ground where it left a trail of smoke beneath the rain.

The other harpies abandoned the attack. The fairy men sheathed their swords, returned to their normal, small fairy size, and followed the harpies to be sure they stayed away. They disappeared in the rain as the women crowded around Beth with words of thanks and praise. Mrs. Aster knew better. She took Beth by the hand and lead her away from that place. Beth tried not to look. She prayed the harpy was just stunned but feared she made a smoking carcass.

Mistletoe and Mrs. Aster flanked Beth and walked her among the trees beside the swollen, rushing stream that came out from a spring in the castle and normally meandered down the gentle castle hill. Zinnia got big to walk between Hyacinth and Daffodil, and they followed. Holly got back up on Beth’s shoulder and held on to her hair, soaked as it was, but Beth hardly noticed until they halted, just shy of the gate where Holly gave a great tug and let out a gasp. They saw a dragon in the archway. Smoke poured from the nostrils in regular puffs that suggested it might be sleeping, but the fairies were wary.

“We should get small,” Mistletoe suggested quietly. “We could zip passed it before it could react.”

“That won’t help Beth,” Mrs. Aster countered. All the same, she got small and fluttered her butterfly wings rapidly to hold her place in the rain and wind. The wind started picking up, making flight difficult. All the same, the others got small as well, except Holly who was already in her small form and whispering in Beth’s ear.

“That is a big dragon. It looks mean, and scary.”

Out behind the castle, something exploded in the distant mountains. They could see the ash and steam rise in the air despite the dim visibility. “Avalon is collapsing,” Mrs. Aster spoke softly and then held her breath. The dragon stirred.

Beth and the fairies stood under a tree by the stream. The ground got soaked with a thin layer of water over top. Beth stomped her feet softly in her nervousness while she watched. Her shoes went squish, squish, but she paid them no attention. Then the dragon roared a great ball of flame, came out from beneath the archway, and it headed straight toward them.

The fairies scattered. Beth got left standing, again. She thought of flying up, but the dragon stretched its wings, and she knew it could catch her. Beth thought of running, but most of the castle hill was without cover. The dragon burped another ball of flame. It had not yet gotten close enough to crisp Beth’s tree, but she felt the heat and decided she only had one option. She was going to have to dive into the swift, swollen stream and pray that she might not drown or crash herself against some hidden rocks.

Beth called up her courage and got ready to jump when she spied something out of the corner of her eye. The dragon also saw and turned to meet this threat. Beth saw the knight in shining armor, and he made a charge at the dragon. How medieval, Beth thought. She felt thrilled to watch, but also a bit afraid for the knight because as Holly said, it was a very big dragon.

Dragon and knight drew closer and closer to battle. It looked to Beth like everything happened in slow motion. She began to squint against the rain, the closer they got, like her eyes intended to close the moment they made contact. Suddenly a light, like sunlight, shot out from the tip of the knight’s lance and the dragon head pointed straight up and poured a massive amount of fire into the sky. That flame, like a volcanic explosion, looked far more deadly than any fake little lightning Beth might be able to muster.

The dragon collapsed. The knight flashed bright as the sun for one brief moment, before the knight, his lance, and his horse all vanished. Beth thought how she could watch, even at the brightest moment this time. She just decided the rain must have blunted the actual brightness when Mrs. Aster flew down from the tree above Beth’s head and yelled.

“Hurry!” She yelled it downstream and again upstream, before she returned to her big form and grabbed Beth’s hand.

They hurried as well as they could toward the gate and made a wide arc around the dragon as the other fairies rejoined them. Beth walked carefully this time and found herself helping the old fairy over the slippery spots more than the other way around. She found herself thinking that, like the harpy, she hoped the dragon went back to sleep and was not actually dead. As frightened as she was to see a living, fire-breathing dragon face to face, it felt like an amazing miracle to actually see the dragon up close; and live to tell about it.

Mrs. Aster pulled her wand when they reached the gate. She tapped on the door three times, and they all heard the lock. “Push,” Mrs. Aster said, and they pushed the very heavy door just wide enough for them to squeeze in. Mrs. Aster pulled Beth behind some crates, boxes and bags that looked left to rot at the gate entrance, then she and Mistletoe began to argue about something in sharp whispers while Beth looked up in amazement.

Golden Door Chapter 18 James at the Door, part 2 of 2

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Picker and Poker screamed, and Grubby let out a string of invectives which would have even horrified the most loose tongued redneck, if anyone listened. But before the panic could set in, the group found their escape route blocked by several winged creatures that came down to the lowest tree branches and grabbed on with their feet-claws with prehensile toes so they could keep their hands free. They were muddy colored with a kind of dark green mold color splattered around their skin, like army camouflage, and they were not more than three feet tall, but there were plenty of them.  One of them spoke up against the rain.

“Lady Copperpot. Sir Pug. You must make a dash for the gate while you can. We will keep the bats busy for a time, but there are so many I don’t know if even we can kill and eat them all.”

“My thanks, good pixies,” Pug offered a salute.

“To the gate,” Mrs. Copperpot yelled, and turned her wolf.

James realized that the pixies were the reason everyone kept looking up during their journey. They were being followed from above for a long time, but of course, Mrs. Copperpot worried because she had no way of knowing if they were on the right side of things or if they had become slaves to Ashtoreth. James almost shrieked when the pixies first appeared, but he held his tongue and was now glad, because he had to save his shriek for when they came to the edge of the trees before the gate. They saw a beast, the biggest serpent of all lounging right in front of the door, and everyone stopped short. James added words to his shriek.

“What is that?”

“I don’t know,” Warthead said. He had stayed alongside James the whole way from the ogre lair, but now he stepped out on the main path for a better look.

James yelled, “No!”

Grubby yelled, “Warthead, No!”

The giant serpent lifted its head to gaze on the ogre, and Mrs. Copperpot breathed one word. “Basilisk.”

Pug added to the yelling. “Don’t look in its eyes.” Picker and Poker had their hands over their eyes so they would not have to look at the bats. There was no worry there, but for James, being human, the minute he heard “Don’t look in the eyes,” that became the thing he most wanted to do in all the universe. He would have looked, too, but for the distraction of localized thunder that sounded like it rumbled right down the main path. He looked there, instead, and saw a knight covered head to toe in plate armor, with a big lance held tight beneath the arm, riding on a tremendous steed that sounded like thunder as it charged.

Warthead had stopped moving where he left plenty of room for the knight to ride by. The basilisk, however, rapidly uncurled as it seemed to recognize the challenge and danger it faced. The knight grew close. The basilisk poised to strike when there came a tremendous flash of light, and everyone blinked. When they looked again, the knight had disappeared, and the basilisk began to thrash around. Pug recognized what happened.

“He blinded the beast.”

Mrs. Copperpot needed no more invitation than that. “Hurry.” She dismounted. “Run to the gate.” The serpent started whipping around, and while they faced the danger of someone being struck, the basilisk inevitably moving away from the gate.

“Run now!” Pug yelled and drove Picker and Poker ahead of him. Bogus and Reese stayed with the wolves, and after shouting ‘Good luck,” they rode off as fast as they could.

Grubby dismounted, grabbed James’ hand, and went straight to Warthead. “We got to go now,” Grubby yelled. James felt more worried and touched the ogre on the knee, just below eye level. He feared the ogre had turned to stone, but Warthead shook his head and looked down, so James hollered up.

“Go in the gate!” He turned and ran, and Grubby ran beside him with Warthead following.

“Ogre is half-stone already. Basilisk would have to look overtime to finish the job,” Grubby said.

Mrs. Copperpot rapped her cooking spoon against the door three times, and they heard the lock open. Then she and Pug and two motivated young dwarfs shoved the gate open. Once Warthead made it in, him being the last, they appreciated his help in closing the solid oak door that stood about twelve feet tall. It clicked when it shut. The lock fell back into place, and everyone breathed to be safe. The basilisk had been blinded and the bats remained outside the walls where they tried not to end up pixie food.

“That was a Knight of the Lance,” Mrs. Copperpot said, between deep breaths.

“Now, I don’t know,” Pug doubted it. “No one has seen a Knight of the Lance in Avalon for a thousand years, and with due respect, even you are not old enough to have seen one for sure.”

Mrs. Copperpot frowned at the gnome. “What else could it have been?” Pug prepared to answer her but got interrupted by a new, commanding voice.

“Stand where you are. We have you surrounded.” A hearty dwarf stood before them, hands on a big ax, surrounded by a dozen more, some armed with crossbows.

“Noen.” Mrs. Copperpot identified the speaker without adding his honorific, “Lord.”

“Grandmother,” Lord Noen responded. “You are a traitor to the realm, all of you, and you will be held in the dungeon pending trial.”

Warthead expressed exactly what everyone felt. “What?”

James had a different thought, and though his voice stayed soft and very unassuming, he said what he was told to say. “Angel said, do not be afraid.”

The dwarfs staggered. A couple collapsed to their knees. Most put their hands to their heads and shook them, like they were removing cobwebs. Noen staggered forward a few steps, his eyes on the ground. Then he looked up and seemed to see the group for the first time, and he spoke.

“Grandma. What are you doing here? You know it isn’t safe.”

“Noen,” Mrs. Copperpot commanded her grandson. “You need to take us to the dungeon. We have to set the ladies free first of all.”

Golden Door Chapter 17 David Home Free, part 2 of 2

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Floren ignored the old elf, having her eyes focused on the castle. “The front gate is bound to be guarded. We could swim over the wall at some point,” she suggested.

“Not recommended,” a new voice spoke, and David squinted to see who or what it was, thinking at first one of the mermen followed them. Then he imagined it must be a merchild because the voice had a child-like quality to it. A figure formed in the water, like one made out of water, and it looked to David like a jelly baby or maybe a translucent gingerbread man. The figure continued.

“Going over the wall sets off alarms. The gate is guarded, but my people can lead them away. Where is the son of the Kairos?”

“Here.” David raised his hand. He had learned he had to admit that much and there was no use in hiding. He knew his father was the Kairos even if he was still not certain exactly who this Kairos was. At once he found himself surrounded by jelly babies. They pressed up against him and swirled around him in a way that made him start to swirl with them. The current they created turned him around and around until he got dizzy. He swallowed hard when the swirling stopped, because he thought it would be impolite to throw up.

“Now the young lord can have some say over wind and wave if you manage to escape the creature in the castle and get back to the surface,” the first jelly baby said.

“My thanks, Lord Sweetwater,” Inaros returned a warm smile. The jelly baby turned to him.

“Don’t mention it, you old coot of a pirate. Just be ready to go when the time comes.” Lord Sweetwater broke the gingerbread outline that held his body together and blended back into the sea. It felt strange to watch. David found himself staring.

“Water sprites,” Floren explained for David. “They are as anxious as the rest of us to overcome Ashtoreth and the demons trying to destroy our home.” And they waited and watched.

It looked to David like a great fist formed in the water. The fist looked made of water, but it had the same kind of Jell-O-like look the water sprite used to hold his form together. It crashed hard into the gate, pulled back and crashed a second time. After it crashed the third time, the fist came apart into a hundred different sprites. Mermen, enchanted mermen as Inaros explained, came pouring out of the gate with cattle prods. Apparently, they intended to give the nearest sprite a jolt. Fortunately, the sprites were quick. They easily lead the mermen down the hill and across the underwater meadow, away from the gate.

“Now!” Inaros and Floren spoke at the same time and the swimmers made a dash for the gate. They would have made it, too, if a tentacle did not shoot out from the caste and wrap around Inaros. The suckers on that tentacle said this was no ordinary squid. A second tentacle caught David by the arm and a third caught Floren by one leg. The boys both screamed as the squid squeezed out from beneath the portcullis.

David screamed with the boys as he tried to peel the tentacle from his arm. Floren yelled for help as they saw Mickey O’Mac arrive with the strangest sight David had yet seen in this strange world. It was a knight in armor, covered head to toe in shining plate, riding a white horse, a lance tucked neatly under his arm. It looked to be riding as it might have ridden on flat, dry ground, and being underwater did not appear to make the least bit of difference.

The knight charged for the kill, but that is not what it did. One touch of the lance and the giant squid exploded, just like the water fist, but instead of sending out a hundred water sprites, it turned into hundreds of tiny squid that littered the castle hill and splattered against the castle wall. David watched as the knight faded from sight before entering the castle. “It just vanished,” he said later, to anyone who would listen.

Floren and Inaros recovered quickly and grabbed David. Alden and Oren were ahead of them for a change, and Mickey went right with them. They all entered the gate and came into a courtyard where they fell to the ground. The water did not follow them in.

“Hold it right there, you traitors.” An elf in bright golden armor stood in front of them and a dozen elves holding elf bows with arrows at the ready had them surrounded.

“Father?” Floren spoke to the armored elf who was in fact, Lord Strongheart.

“Did we transition to the upper castle?” Mickey whispered.

“Air bubble,” Inaros answered in not so quiet a voice. “The water is still up to the gate and overhead. There’s a storm above the sea, but not raining here.”

David had his hands up in surrender, like he had seen in a million movies. “What can we do now?” he asked to no one in particular.

“What did Angel tell you?” Inaros saved that question all through the journey. He was not certain Angel told David anything, but he hoped.

“Angel said, do not be afraid.” David came right out with it. He kind of whispered it and kind of asked it like a question, but the words were spoken. The elf in armor immediately doubled over like a man hit in the gut. Oren raced toward his father, while the elves around them fell to the ground and trembled. Floren followed her brother, but by the time she arrived, their father started recovering.

“Floren? Oren?” Strongheart grabbed his children and gave them great hugs. “But what are you doing here?” He looked around. “Where are we?”

“Castle under the sea,” Inaros said as he stepped up and bowed to his Lord.

“I remember,” Strongheart said, and his face turned to anger and hate. It appeared terrible to see, but he quickly looked away and into the castle where the demon Ashtoreth was located.

“No time for that,” Mickey shouted to be sure he was heard. “Dungeon first to free the ladies.”

“You can put your hands down,” Inaros told David, and Alden helped him lower his hands while Strongheart stood.

“This way,” the elf Lord commanded, and they headed toward the dungeon, but now as liberators rather than prisoners.

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MONDAY

James reaches the back door but it is no easier getting into the castle than it was for David. Chris also finds the castle door guarded. Until Monday, Happy Reading

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